1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to self-facing shelves and in particular to means for reducing friction between the shelf and products being displayed and sold therefrom.
2. Background of the Invention
Self-facing shelves are known and used for the display and sale of merchandise, such as food products retained in a grocery store retail freezer. Such shelves are inclined from back to front so that the goods move by gravity to the front of the shelf as they are removed therefrom by the consumer. Studies have shown that products are much more likely to be sold if the front of the shelf always has product.
A problem with metal shelves concerns the coefficient of friction between the shelf and certain products wherein a greater angle of inclination can be required to assure that a further product will always slide by gravity to the front of the shelf to replace one that has been removed. However, the greater the shelf angle the less product that can be stored in a given space. One approach to avoiding a greater angle of incline has been to make the shelf from a plurality of rigid wires or rods, rather than a sheet of metal, to decrease the total friction by minimizing the amount of physical contact between the product and the shelf. A further approach has involved the use of alternate lower coefficient of friction plastic materials to form the shelf. However, problems arise with respect to material suitability in terms of durability and tooling and material costs. Sheets of low friction material having a plurality of top surface parallel ridges are also known. These sheets can serve as the bottom of a shelf wherein the ridges run from the front to back thereof. Thus, in addition to reducing friction as a function of the physical properties of the material, such sheets also minimize the amount of surface area contact between the product and itself by virtue of the product only being in contact with the apex of the ridges. However, this approach also has problems with respect to manufacturing, and material and tooling costs.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a self-facing shelf that provides for reduced friction between the shelf and product, that is durable and that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and use.
It is also understood that refrigerated food display freezers are made by a number of manufacturers, each having a slightly different shelf width. Thus, retrofitting such freezers with specially designed shelves for the display and sale of a certain product requires a specific adaptation for each freezer model. Such adaptations can be expensive and require a greater inventory of part types as well as greatly increase the chances of ordering, production or shipping errors occurring. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a strategy for permitting the manufacture of one size of such a specialty shelf that could be used in any of the various freezers that would be encountered.